Visit the Center
for Politics-Ipsos
Political Atlas

Subscribe to the Crystal Ball

Follow us on Twitter!

Low-Carb Convention Wrap

Peter Jackson, Senior CorrespondentSeptember 1st, 2004

Or, should we call it “Low-Speed Convention Wrap”

This Crystal Ball udpdate is coming to you live from the National Journal area in the Farley Building, adjacent to Madison Square Garden. In yet another move to make things hard on reporters, the convention folks have made Internet access a near impossibility if you don’t have a toll-free 800 number to dial. At the beginning of the week all the phones in the press filing center could dial local numbers for free. Aparently, that was a mistake and Verizon, the official telecommunications provider for the Republican National Convention, switched the phones to act like pay phones.

Your Crystal Ball thought it was smart enough to make this work: use our calling card to make a local call. Oh contraire monfraire, Verizon is unfortunately unable to make that work for our computers.

The round of problems we’ve reported from the Press Filing Center is not impacting most of the U.S.-based publications. National Journal, for example, was allocated 4,800 square feet of work space here in the Farley Building. And, rightly so–between the Hotline and Convention Daily, they are doing their fair share of work. But small independent publications like your Crystal Ball and many smaller international publications are getting the short end of the information superhighway stick. We’ll keep you up to date, and promise not to let this influence our coverage.

Zig-Zag Zell tells it how it is

Retiring Senator Zell Miller is set to speak tonight just after 10pm in the keynote spot. The Georgia Democrat who, depsite his support for Bush–his first Republican vote will be cast for the president in November–and his vitriolic words towards congressional Democrats, will attempt to appeal to independent and undecided voters. His last keynote address at a national party nominating convention was also here in New York for the Democrats while he was governor. Tonight will mark the first time a Democrat has delivered the keynote address for the Republican convention.

Primetime Viewing Guide

Oh, did we mention that Vice President Dick Cheney is speaking tonight, as well?